The District Chronicles

Issue date: 8/3/08 Section: Cover

Media Credit: Kenny Tracy/Staff Photographer

Rita Sinha, Miss DC International 2007, walks confidently, the heels of her red, leather pumps striking the runway accenting the downbeat of the hip-hop rhythm. At the end of the catwalk, she poses, flaunting a fashionable black T-shirt that reads in bold white writing, "I am worth the wait." 

Sinha is one of the many disciples of 31-year-old anesthesiologist Lindsay Marsh, a virgin and fierce advocate of sexual purity until marriage. A virgin at 24, Sinha believes the abstinence education Marsh promotes can have a significant impact on bringing awareness to HIV/AIDS prevention, and has centered her platform on this issue.

Marsh is alarmed that one in every 20 adults living in the District of Columbia is infected with HIV. She is equally concerned that in D.C., 81 percent of all AIDS cases are among African Americans.  And the situation seems to her to be getting worse.

HIV/AIDS is preventable through abstinence, she said.  And in 2006, she started a program, Worth the Wait, to urge teenagers, college students, and young adults to abstain from sex until marriage for the sake of both health and spirit. The program has since evolved into a company based in Temple Hills, MD, that sponsors runway fashion shows, model calls, gala events, and a clothing line, called Worth the Wait, LLC.

Marsh's program is part of a larger national sexual purity movement, which began during the 1990s. The movement is gaining popularity even at such prestigious universities as Harvard where two students started True Love Revolution in 2007 to promote abstinence on the campus.  Its advocates see the movement as an effective antidote against STD transmission and teen pregnancy and abortion.

Dr. Marsh has also written a book, The Best Sex of my Life: a Guide to Purity, available at various sites including: www.amazon.com. www.trafford.com and www.iamworththewait.com.

In the book, Dr. Marsh discusses the intimate details of her virginity and the "grey" areas of sexual abstinence. "I am very candid and transparent in recalling my past struggles, (temptations, tests and back-sliding and present triumphs in the area of my sexuality," she states on the program's Web site. "It is my goal that both males and females can learn from both the good and the not-so-good encounters I've had."

Dr. Marsh knows well all the excuses for engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage. "Sexploitation runs rampant in multimedia: from music videos, radio, and commercials, to everyday movies," she declares on the Web site. "Who can stay pure in the midst of booty-shaking, Laffy Taffy, thong songs, and lap dances? The answer: You and I. Purity is possible. Abstinence is also possible.  Renewed and restored virginity is possible."

Continued...

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